Grave of the Fireflies
by futureauthor13
Summary: After an air raid in their town, best friends and brothers Mordecai and Rigby have to rely on each other to survive this war. While trying to overcome hunger and danger, they become closer friends than ever before. Based on the anime with the same name.
1. Chapter 1

**As mentioned in the description, this is based on the anime movie "Grave of the Fireflies". It is a sad but amazing movie, and I highly recommend it. A few things to point out: While I know Mordecai and Rigby are the same age, but for the sake of this story, Rigby is a couple years younger than Mordecai, who is nineteen. 2nd, this is a totally different storyline than Regular Show, so there's going to be quite a few differences. 3rd, I will mostly try to keep the characters in character, but because this is a dramatic and tragic story, there will probably be moments where they seem a little OOC. And finally, like the movie, I'm not going to say who exactly is the enemy of this war, I will just refer to them as 'The Enemy'. **

**Warning: This story will have main character deaths. Please no flaming. I do not own Regular Show, or Grave of the Fireflies. Okay, now lets get started. **

**()()()()()()**

_September 21st, 2010. _

_That was the night I died. _

At an old subway station, there are many people walking around. Subway riders, travelers and janitors for the station are what make up most of the crowd. But throughout the crowd, you can see about a dozen people sitting on the ground, wearing rags and looking more dead than alive.

Leaning against an old brick pillar, there is a tall, thin bluejay. His legs and wings are spread out, and his feathers are covered in dirt and ash. Next to him is an old grey sack, with barely anything in it. His breathing is shallow, and his eyes are glassy, as if he is staring out into space.

_"Hey! Dude!" _The bird hears in his head.

"What...day is it?" he asks softly, before falling onto the floor. He knows these are his final moments.

"How disgraceful," comments a man as he walks by the bird. "Poor dear," says another person, a woman who stops and places a piece of fruit by the bird, hoping it will give him just a little more strength, but he doesn't have the strength to eat it.

_"Mordecai!" _the voice says, now with more of a happy tone. The bird almost gives a smile. "...Rigby..." he whispers before he finally falls into a peaceful sleep. As the bird lays there, a janitor walks by.

"Hey," he says, before giving him a couple pokes with his broom handle. He sighs. "He's already too far gone," he says, "Nothing we can do." The janitor picks the sack, and opens it. There's only one thing in there.

"A video game?" the janitor says, curious. It was one of those old handheld video games. It was filthy, but the janitor was able to read the title 'Strong Johns' on the game system. The screen was cracked, and when the janitor shook the game, he discovered there weren't any batteries.

"Just toss it," says one of his fellow janitors, "it's just junk." So, the janitor stands up, and takes one last look at the avian. He then walks out of the subway station, and stands in the back doorway. He throws the game system across the abandoned road and into the tall grass behind the station, and then walks back inside.

After hitting the ground two or three times, the battery cover pops off the game system and lands only a couple inches away from it. Just like the janitor had suspected, there were no batteries inside the game, but it wasn't empty either. Inside, there was a small pile of ashes and a couple of small pieces of bone.

Fireflies begin appear in the field, and the once darkened field now has a redish, yellowish hue. Then, coming up from the tall grass, a spirit, in the form of a small raccoon with a red and yellow glow, appears.

The raccoon looks across the road, and can see the body of the bird from the open doorway. "Oh no," he says to himself. He begins to start walking forward, but stops when he feels a soft hand on his shoulder. Turning his head, he sees the bluejay, with the same redish glow on his body.

"Mordecai!" the raccoon shouts happily, "You're here!"

"What, did you think I would leave you behind?" Mordecai says with a friendly smile. Rigby smiles back. "C'mon bro, we better get going." Mordecai begins walking forward, with Rigby following him, stoping only to pick up the now clean and crack free Strong Johns game.

Once they are at the subway station, they climb aboard a red subway, and leave the station. Mordecai sits in his seat, with Rigby next to him playing the game. After only a few minutes, the raccoon loses the game.

"Aw man," he says, but quickly gets over it and offers it to Mordecai, who happily accepts. After a few more minutes, Mordecai gives back the game, and turns to face the window. Firebombs are falling onto the city. He's seeing a memory, the first memory.

_I still remember the day everything changed..._

()()()()()()()()

**Several months earlier (Mordecai's Pov)**

"Phew! Done!" I wiped the sweat off my forehead and stick the shovel in the ground. Now at least we'll be able to save some food the next time there's a raid. Last time we were lucky, the town next to us got attacked the most and only a few buildings here burned down. I live in a small town, but that doesn't mean it won't get attacked.

"Dude, are you done yet?" I hear a voice from behind me say.

"Yes Rigby, I'm done," I said, "You know, it wouldn't have taken as long if you would've helped a little bit more."

"Hey, I helped at the beginning! But I had to take a break, digging with your paws isn't as easy as it looks you know," said Rigby.

"Whatever Dude," I replied, leaning against the shovel and rolling my eyes at my best friend and practically my little brother. I had known Rigby nearly all my life, and he hasn't changed a bit. He was still the lazy, slacking, fun loving raccoon I knew. Even though he's only two years younger than me, he still acts like he's twelve.

But that's not really a bad thing, at least not all the time. It makes him really fun, and he makes my life interesting. He may not be the easiest person to deal with, but he's still my best friend.

"Are you two done?" another voice, from inside the house, asked. The voice is high and happy, so I recognize it right away.

"Yep, all done Pops," I said. Two people, Pops and Don, walk out into the backyard. Pops is the old man who owns the house and the town's only park. He's really nice, but a little strange. He gave jobs to the three of us a year ago, and even offered us a place to stay without rent.

"Hey bros!" said Don happily. He walked over to Rigby and opened his arms. "Hey Rigbone, how 'bout some sugar?"

"Oh come on Don," said Rigby, "I don't want any sugar!"

"Please bro?" Rigby sighs dramatically before giving in. While Rigby and I may be close enough to be brothers, Rigby and Don are brothers. But they aren't exactly close. Rigby gets annoyed by him easily, and he hates that despite being his younger brother, Don is about three feet taller than Rigby. Don is almost the opposite of Rigby, he's hard working, mature and is always offering people hugs (What he calls "Sugar")

"Hey Mordo," said Don as soon as he's done hugging Rigby, "I've already got all the food we need in the kitchen."

"Cool," I replied.

"Hey Mordecai," said Rigby, smiling and swishing his tail back and forth, "Now that we're done for the day, wanna head down to the arcade?"

"Yeah!" I replied. Going to the arcade was always fun, and it always took my mind off things. "Let me just go get my..." I stop midsentence. There's something in the distance. It sounds like, a siren.

The sound is getting louder now. We all know what it means: An air raid.

"Oh my," Pops said to himself, "Not again."

"Don't worry Pops," Don said, trying to comfort him, "I'm sure it's just a drill or something. But in case it's not, we better get going." He then turned to me and Rigby. "Will you guys be alright on your own?"

"Yeah yeah," said Rigby, "We can find the shelters just fine." I give Don a nod to let him know we would be fine.

"Well alright, be safe you two," said Don. He then escorted Pops back into the house and out the door.

"Come on dude," I said, "help me get some of this food into the hole." Rigby stands up, and we both run into the house, grab food, and quickly put it in the hole. When almost all of it is outside, I take one last look in the kitchen cabinets. The only good thing I can find is a box of chocolate cake mix. There was no way I was going to pass something so delicious up. I also grabbed a couple blankets and clothes for Pops.

When I went back outside, I saw Rigby pouting by the hole. "What?" I asked him.

"Nothing," he replied, "Just it sucks having to go to the shelters." The war had started three months ago, and we had already had to go into the shelters five times. They were hot, crowded, and full of scared people.

"Dude, it's either that or getting blown up by a bomb," I replied, "Now help me cover this hole." We both started pouring dirt into the hole, and didn't stop until it was completely covered. "Okay, now lets go!"

We both go inside the house, grab our wallets and i.d's and run out the door. As soon as we do, we hear small explosions. "Dude!" Rigby shouts. "Look up!"

I look up, and gasp. The sky was filled with firebombs, coming right towards us! "Back inside! Hurry!" I shout. We dive through the doorway, and cover our heads. After just a few moments, everything is quiet.

"Okay," I say as I stand up, "I think the coast is clear." We both walk back outside. The sky is black, and while there aren't any houses next door to ours, all the buildings across the street from ours were on fire. It looked bad, but I somehow I knew it was going to get worse. "Lets move!"

We begin running through the streets. Everywhere there are small flames and smoke. As we got into the busier areas of the town, we see more people.

Everyone is running and screaming. If a person falls, they just stay there and nearly get trampled. More fire bombs were falling and exploding around us. We had to run even faster now just to try and escape the crowds. Rigby had to run on all fours just to keep up.

"Rigby!" I shouted, hoping he can hear me, "The other shelters are going to be packed! Follow me, I know where we can find some empty ones!"

"Right behind you, Man!" Rigby shouted back. We turn down an alley, and run past a group of empty buildings. With each step, we get farther away from the crowds and firebombs. Pretty soon, we're near the outside of the town, by the river. As we walk along the brown river, we find the empty shelter.

As soon as we get inside, we collapse on the concrete ground. We're both breathing heavily. "Dude," said Rigby in between breaths, "That was intense! I didn't think we were going to make it!"

"I know," I replied, "We'll stay here for a few minutes, and then we can head back and see if we can find Don and Pops."

"I'm sure they're fine," said Rigby, trying to act like he isn't worried at all.

"Yeah, they're probably at one of the shelters," I replied. We both sigh. Even though it was very likely, we never thought our town would get attacked.

"I wonder if any buildings survived," Rigby asked to no one in particular.

"I don't know," I replied back, "You want to go find out?"

"Is it safe?" Rigby asked. I step out of the shelter and look up at the sky. The planes are flying away from the town.

"Yeah dude," I replied, "It's over." Rigby steps out of the shelter, and I notice that he had some fur missing from his arm, with a small pink burn in its place. "You okay?"

"Yeah," said Rigby, looking at his arm, "I think it's just burned." He touches it, and yelps in pain.

"Don't touch it," I said, "Look, there's probably a place set up for injuries at the hospital or something. We'll go there and get your arm bandaged."

"Okay," said Rigby. Walking on two legs now, Rigby walks in front of me and we both climb the hill to get to the town.

"Wow," Rigby says, looking over the horizon. Nearly all the buildings are burning or have been burned down. There are a few blackened buildings and just a couple of them are actually still standing. The grass has been replaced by miles of dirt, smoke and flames. "Dude, everythings gone."

"I know," I said, looking down at the ground. I can't believe it. Just a few minutes ago this place was a town, and now...

"Mordecai? Mordecai!"

"Huh?" I looked down at Rigby.

"Come on dude, let's go," he said.

"Right." We both continued walking into town. Everything was such a mess. There were groups of people everywhere. Some were helping the firemen put out the fires, others were pulling bodies out of the rubble. Most people though were just sitting around talking. What else can you do after your home gets destroyed.

"Attention residents of East City and East Counties!" We looked up and saw someone on a bicycle with a megaphone. "Attention residents of East City and East Counties! All residents are to report to the elementary school for medical needs and rations! Repeat, all residents are to report to the elementary school for medical needs and rations!"

"Well," I said, "Guess we're going to school. I'm sure Don and Pops are already there." By the time Rigby and I got there, the place was packed, but the line for medical attention moved quickly. Most of the people in serious condition were already being taken care of. While Rigby was getting his arm bandaged, a doctor came up to us.

"Excuse me," he said, "Are you two Mordecai and Rigby?"

"Yeah," I replied, "Why?"

"I've been looking for you," the doctor said, "Your friend wants to see you. I'm afraid both of your friends are hurt, and pretty badly at that." Rigby and I both look at each other.

"Where are they?" Rigby asks. The doctor tells us to follow him. We walk into the school, and past several rooms with badly hurt people in them, most of them burned or bleeding a lot. After what seemed like forever, we stopped at a room.

"Mordecai, Rigby, thank goodness you're alright." We walked into the room and saw Pops laying in a hospital bed, with several other people in beds around him. His clothes are ripped, and his arms are a little burned, but other than that he looks fine.

"How ya holding up, Pops?" Rigby asked.

"Oh I'm fine," said Pops, "I'm just glad you two are alri..." Pops suddenly started coughing. He coughed for what seemed like forever, each cough sounding worse than the last. By the time he was done, he could barely talk, but he assured us he was fine.

"Where's Don?" Rigby asked. The doctor didn't answer right away. "Follow me," said the doctor. He led us to the back of the room, and pulled the curtains opened. Our eyes widened, and I heard myself gasp. "That's Don?" Rigby asked.

"I'm afraid so," replied the doctor. Don was laying in the bed, his body red and burned. Nearly all of his body was wrapped in bandages and those were covered with splotches of blood. Even his face was covered in bandages, leaving holes only for his eyes, mouth and nose. There was no way that was the same Don I had seen just half an hour ago, the tall, up-beat and healthy raccoon that I live in the same house with (or at least used to).

"He finally fell asleep a few minutes ago," said the doctor, "he is in very critical condition. There was an explosion, and Don was caught in the impact. Pops was far enough away not to get too badly hurt, but he inhaled a lot of smoke, which is dangerous for a man his age."

I look down at Rigby. He just staring at Don's body, not saying a word or moving a muscle. "Rigby?" I ask him, "Dude, it'll be okay." Finally, I see a little bit of movement from him.

"I..." Rigby took a couple steps back. "I have to go." With that, Rigby ran out the door.

"Don't worry," I say to the doctor, "I'll make sure he's okay." I glance over to the front of the room. Pops had fallen asleep while we were with Don. "So, are they going to make it?"

The doctor looked down at the floor. "There's no easy way to say this," he said, "But Don, most likely won't survive the night. As for Pops, we can send to a hospital in the next city over, but with the smoke intake combined with his age... I give him about two and a half weeks."

I couldn't believe it. How could so much change in so little time? I thanked the doctor and then sat down next to Pops. After about fifteen minutes, I was about to leave when I felt a hand tug on my arm. "Pops?"

"Mordecai," Pops said, his voice raspy, "I know what happened to our house, but do not fret. I have a friend in Northbrook City that would be happy to take you three boys in."

"Pops," I said, "thanks, but..."

"No buts," said Pops, "I'm not going to have my friends living on the street."

I couldn't help but smile. "Okay Pops," I said, "thanks."

"No trouble at all," he said with a smile. I sighed silently. 'I really hope you make it Pops,' I thought to myself. But some things in life just weren't fair.

()()()()()()()

"Rigby? Rigby, there you are!"

Rigby was sitting outside the school on a bench that was a few feet away from an apple tree. "Huh?" he said, "Oh, h-hey Mordecai." We both sat in silence for a few moments before Rigby spoke up again. "So, what did the doctor say?"

"Pops is going to go to the hospital in Northbrook City, that's only about a hundred miles from here. We're going to Northbrook too, Pops has this friend who says he can give us a place to stay. His name is Benson."

"Oh," said Rigby. He was quiet again, until he asked that big question. "What about Don?"

"The doctors said he, he doesn't have much time left," I said. I waited for a response, but got only silence. Even though Rigby and Don weren't as close as Rigby and me, I could tell he was hurting. He turned away from me, and I could've sworn I heard a sniffle.

"Dude?" I asked, putting my hand on his shoulder. Suddenly, he jumped up and sprinted towards the apple tree. "Hey Mordecai," he shouted, "Watch this! I was always the best at climbing these!"

At first, I couldn't believe it. Both of his friend and his brother were seriously hurt and he was climbing trees? But then I realized, he was doing this to keep himself busy, so he wouldn't cry in front of me.

So, I just laid back and watched him climb the tree. It was his way of dealing with it, so I wasn't going to butt in. I sighed, and turned to look at the city. As bad as this day has been, I had a feeling this was only the beginning.

**I told you it was sad. Please review, and again, no flames. Next chapter, expect more characters and a longer chapter. This story will probably be four to five chapters long, but there's going to be a lot of content. So if this chapter was boring or repetitive to you, the next one should be better. See you in the next chapter. **


	2. Chapter 2

Turns out Benson's place was in between our town and the city. Luckily, the bus made stops nearby, and there were several farms around us, so hopefully we wouldn't run out of food.

Before we took the subway to Benson's, we stopped by our house in the park. "Wow, good thing we got out in time," commented Rigby. The house had collapsed, and most of the wood looked charred and burned. But lucky for us, it was easy to find the food we burried.

The first thing we took out were the blankets and clothes, they were a little dirty but could easily be washed. Then came the food.

"Let's see," said Rigby, as he pulled out food, "Mashed potatoes, cans of stuff, and... a jar of lollipops?"

"I thought Pops would want them," I explained. Rigby placed the jar on the ground and started searching again.

"No way!" he said, "A box of donuts? Awesome!" There was also chicken, noodles, dried fruits, fresh cherries, a box of cereal, beef jerky and sunflower seeds (one of my favorites). The box of cake mix was there too, but I hid it in my bag before Rigby could see it. I thought it would be a nice surprise for later.

"Ready to go?" I asked Rigby.

"Yeah," he replied. We both started walking towards the bus station. "Do you think we'll ever come back here?"

"What, here as in the house, or here as in the city?"

"Both."

I thought for a minute. "We'll probably come back to the city every once in a while. The bank and post office are still standing. As for the house, I don't think we'll come here again."

"Oh," said Rigby, sounding a little dissappointed, "I'm gonna miss this house."

"Yeah," I said, "Me too."

()()()()()()

"Um, so... you're Benson?"

"Yes," he said. Turns out Benson was a red, talking gumball machine. It was a little strange at first, but we quickly got used to it. We weren't the only ones living there, there was also a white yeti named Skips and a green guy named Mitch, but everyone called him Muscleman.

We quickly settled in the guest room, which was small but comfortable. On our first night at Benson's, the first thing we did was take a bath. It would be nice to get all that dirt off my feathers.

As soon as the outside bath was full, Rigby jumped right in. I just stuck my legs in the water and sat on the side of the bath. "Ahhhh," I said, the hot water relaxing my legs. I closed my eyes to try and relax, but then I felt water splash on my face. "Hey!"

Rigby laughed. "Dude," he said, "If you fall asleep near water, you deserve to get splashed."

"You turd!" I splashed him back and soon it was a giant splash fight. By the time it was over, we were both soaked, but at least we were clean. After we dried off, since Benson didn't have a tv or video games, we decided to take a walk.

From Benson's house to the nearest farm, it was all tall grass and trees, with the beach just a couple miles away. "Dude," said Rigby, "Look at all the lighting bugs!"

"I think you mean fireflies," I said. We both watched the dozens of fireflies fly around us. Even in the park we had never seen so many. Rigby held out his hands and tried to catch one, but ended up just squishing it.

"Aw sick!" He said, wiping his hands on the grass. I chuckled, and then saw a firefly land on my beak. I held up my wings, and caught it. I then held it out to Rigby, who tried to catch it, but it just flew away.

"Hey dude," I said, "Do you want to see something great?"

"Sure, what is it?" Rigby asked. I opened my bag, and pulled out the cake mix.

"Chocolate cake!" I said with a smile. Rigby's eyes widened.

"No way!" he shouted, grabbing the box to make sure it was real, "This stuff's been out of stock for months! How'd you get it?"

"There was a box in the pantry," I said. Happy from the surprise, Rigby began to dance around.

"Free cake! Free cake!" He sang. I laughed and danced right along with him. Only Rigby could turn chocolate cake into something to dance about.

Once we were done dancing, we headed back to Benson's. Everyone else was already in bed or getting ready to go to bed, so we had the kitchen to ourselves. As soon as we found a pan, we poured in the cake mix and a couple cups of water (Milk rations weren't for another month). After only half an hour, the cake was ready.

"Aw dude," said Rigby, "this is gonna taste great!"

"Yeah it is!" I agreed. I got out a knife, and cut out a small piece, and then cut that piece in half. I put one of the pieces on my plate, and the other one on Rigby's.

He looked up at me, a little confused. "Dude, what's with the small pieces?"

"You said it yourself, Dude," I said, "this stuff's been out of stock for months, we have to make it last."

"Fine," said Rigby, pouting a little. He stuck a fork in his cake, and we both began to eat. It was better than we thought it would be. When we were done, we put the rest of the cake in a plastic container and hid it in our room. We were willing to share the rest of our food with Benson and the others, but the cake was just for the two of us.

()()()()()()()

About a week after we moved in with Benson, it started raining a lot. The first couple days it wasn't so bad, but by the fourth day it started to get really annoying. We were bored out of our minds! We were doing anything just to keep ourselves busy.

"Okay, ready?" I asked.

"Just give me a second!" said Rigby, rubbing his eyes one last time, "Okay, ready!"

"Stare!" We both stared at each other. Rigby's eyes started to water right away. "Hmph hmph," I said with a smile.

"Don't think you're going to win so easily!" Rigby said, determined.

"What are you two doing?" We looked up and saw Benson in the doorway, looking annoyed with us.

"Staring contest," Rigby answered.

"Shouldn't you two be, I don't know, working or something?" Benson asked.

"We already tried finding jobs," I said, "But all the work buildings are either full or they burned down."

"Well, if you need something to do, there are dishes in the sink and laundry that needs to be done." We both groaned, and Benson shot us a glare. "Or, if you don't want to do that, you can walk to town in the rain and get some coffee, we're all out."

We looked at each other, and shugged our shoulders. Next to laundry and dish duty, walking in the rain didn't sound so bad. "Okay," we said, standing up. Benson rolled his eyes and walked out of the room. We both grabbed a towel to keep us dry, and then walked out the door.

About an hour later, we had made it to the coffee shop. "Hello?" I said when we walked inside. The place looked practically deserted.

"Just a minute!" shouted a voice from the back. It was a girl's voice. A tall, red cardinal walked out a minute later. She looked... _amazing. _She was wearing a yellow dress and an apron, so we could tell she worked there. Her name tag said 'Margaret'. "Hey guys," she said with a smile, "What can I get you?"

"Uh," I said, my brain stopping, "Uh, we just need, uh, a couple bags, um uh..."

"We just need two bags of regular coffee," said Rigby.

"Coming right up," said Margaret. She reached under the counter, and got the bags. We handed her the money and thanked her (or at least Rigby did, I could barely get the words out). "So, see you guys later?"

"Yeah!" I said a little too loud, "Uh, I mean, we'll see you around." And with that we quickly left the coffee shop before I could embarrass myself any further.

"Dude, what was that about?" Rigby asked.

"What do you mean?"

"In there. You were just like 'Uh, um, um, uh'."

"I was just," I said, trying to think of an excuse, "tired. I couldn't think straight!"

"Wait a minute," said Rigby, starting to smile, "You like her, don't you!"

"What, you're crazy," I said. Rigby just laughed.

"Oh dude, you've got it bad," he said, "Margaret and Mordecai sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N..."

"Shut up!" I said, hoping Margaret didn't hear anything.

"Make me!" Rigby said, laughing and then running down the street. I rolled my eyes and ran after him. I thought back to the coffee shop, and Margaret. Even though I didn't show it, kissing didn't seem like a bad idea to me.

()()()()()()()

The next day, I went to the hospital to visit Pops. But what I had hoped would never happen finally did. I came back to the house half an hour later.

As soon as I went inside, Rigby ran out into the hallway. "Oh," he said, "I thought maybe Pops was here too."

"No, still at the hospital," I said, my face frozen.

"That sucks," said Rigby.

"Yeah," I mumbled as I walked to the living room. Rigby walked back to our room. When I got in the living room, I saw Benson and Skips sitting on the couch.

"Hey Mordecai," said Benson, who was in a good mood for once, "How was your visit? I was thinking maybe next time all five of us can visit." I looked down at the floor, and Benson's smile fell. "Did he get worse? Is it that bad?"

"Pops died last night," I said, "The doctor told me today." Benson couldn't believe it. He knew Pops just as well as me and Rigby. Even Skips' usually stoick face softened a little at the news, and he didn't even knew Pops that well. But he was giving us his sympathy.

"Have you told Rigby yet?" Benson asked.

"No," I answered, "I'm going to try and wait as long as I can to tell him. He just lost his younger brother, it would kill him if he knew another one of his friends had died so soon. Please, don't tell him."

"Okay," said Benson. Skips just gave a nod. I thanked them and then went back to our room. Rigby laying on the floor, looking through a comic book (the only book he actually wants to read). I sat down on the floor, and picked up a book.

"Hey dude, you okay?" Rigby asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," I answered, giving him a small smile.

"Good," said Rigby, smiling back.

"You want some chocolate cake?" I asked him.

"Do you even have to ask?" I got out the container, and took out two more pieces of chocolate cake.

()()()()()()()()()

The days turned into weeks, and Rigby and I were getting into our own little schedule. Everyday we would manage to find something to do. We would take walks or go into town to look around. Sometimes we would do dishes or laundry, just so we wouldn't get another lecture from Benson. As for the other people in the house, we barely saw them. Muscleman was kind of annoying since he kept telling jokes and ruining the punch line, and Skips mostly kept to himself and was always working or alone. Other days we would just stay inside and do nothing.

On the first sunny day in two weeks, Rigby and I were hanging clothes on the clothesline when I remembered the beach was nearby.

"Hey dude," I said, "You up for going to the beach?"

"Yeah!" Rigby shouted happily. We grabbed our lunch, put it in a sack, and headed towards the beach. On the way there, we saw that all the fields that had been just tall grass were now vegetable fields. That was a good sign rations would grow. When we finally got to the beach, we were the only ones there, but that was fine with us.

"C'mon dude!" Rigby shouted over his shoulders as he ran towards the water. He jumped in, and screamed. "Cold! So. Freaking. Cold!"

I laughed. "Well, no duh!" I ran in to the water to, but only got my legs wet. After swimming and playing in the water for about half an hour, we got bored and walked back onto the sand. I found a medium sized, pink shell. It wasn't a frisbee, but it would work. "Hey dude!" I shouted, "Catch!"

"I've got it, I've got it!" Rigby shouted, trying to get under the shell. He ended up missing it by a foot, but quickly picked it up and threw it back. It didn't go as far as my throw, but I still managed to catch it.

After playing frisbee for a while, we sat down and had lunch. While we were eating, Rigby noticed a crab and followed it. I just leaned on a rock and enjoyed my lunch. As I ate, I remembered the last time we came to the beach. It was about a year ago, Pops had taken all of us here to reward us for working so hard (even though we had only been working for him for two weeks).

_"Mordecai, Rigby, Don!" Pops shouted from the beach, "Lunch is on!" Don was building a sand castle, while Rigby and Mordecai were swimming in the water. _

_"Yeah!" said Rigby, "I'm starving!"_

_"Same here!" said Mordecai. The three friends ran over to the picnic blanket under the umbrella. There were three plates of fish and chips, and pie and lollipops for dessert waiting for them. Rigby had decided to have his lollipop first, and didn't look at the wrapper before eating it. Big mistake._

_"Ah!" he yelled, his face all puckered up, "Lemon flavored!" Everyone laughed, and after lunch and dessert, the four friends stayed there the rest of the afternoon. It was a great day. _

"AHH!" A scream brought me out of my daydream. "Mordecai, help!" I stood up, and saw Rigby jumping around with a crab on the end of his tail. "Get it off! Get it off!"

I pulled the crab off Rigby's tail, and put it on the ground. It snapped it's claws at us, annoyed.

"Step off!" said Rigby, trying intimidate the crab with a karate chop, "Step off!" The crab, clearly not impressed, walked away. "Yeah you better run!"

"Come on dude," I said, "let's finish our lunch." We were finished in no time at all. Since everything is getting rationed, we haven't been eating as much and we had been losing weight.

As we were putting our trash in our bag, we heard a siren in the distance. "Not again," I muttered, "Come on Rigby, we better get going." We ran to the nearest shelter and stayed there for about half an hour. We didn't hear any bombs drop, so it must've been just a warning. But by the time the sirens stopped, it was getting cloudy and looked like it was about to rain.

"Well, at least we went to the beach when we had the chance," said Rigby.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Hey Mordecai, when we get back can we have some more cake?" Rigby asked.

"Dude, there's only like four pieces left."

"Please?" he asked, practically begging.

"Well, I could use some cake," I said.

"Yes!" said Rigby, clearly happy. As soon as we got back to the house, we went straight to our room and got the cake container. When we opened it, two pieces were missing. I guess our hiding place wasn't as good as we thought. So, we put the last two pieces of cake on a plate, and tried to eat them as slow as possible (for Rigby, that only lasted like half a minute).

"Well, there are a lot of crumbs in here," said Rigby, looking in the container, "Maybe we can eat those."

"I think I have a better idea," I said, "We got our milk rations today right?"

"Yeah, why?" I got up, and went into the kitchen. I came back with two cups, each half filled with milk. I put a handful of cake crumbs into each cup, and stirred them until they had a chocolate color.

"Drink up!" I said, handing Rigby a glass. We both chugged our chocolate milk, it tasted great.

"We should've thought of this weeks ago," commented Rigby after he finished his drink.

"Yeah," I agreed. I put the glasses in the container, and then put the container in the sink. I made a promise to myself that the first thing I would do after this war was over was get some chocolate cake, the biggest one I could buy, and a gallon of chocolate milk. That is, if this war ever ended.

()()()()()()()

"We're back!" I shouted. Benson walked into the hallway.

"Great," he said, "Bring the food in here."

It had been a little over a month since Pops had passed away. We had kept his stuff for as long as we could, but food was getting harder and harder to find, and clothes could get you a lot of food if you trade it to the right person. We had went to the pawn shop in the city, and got two whole bags of food. Rigby didn't like trading Pops' stuff in at first, but I said he wouldn't need them, but I had to lie and said Pops already had everything he needed and didn't need extra stuff. I hated lying, but I didn't think it was time to tell him the truth.

"We got two boxes of cereal, some chicken, some ham, rolls, mashed potatoes, and a bunch of canned vegetables and canned meat," said Rigby, "Oh, and some rice."

"Sounds great," said Benson, "we can cook chicken and rice tonight."

"You mean _me and Mordecai _will cook chicken and rice tonight," said Rigby, sounding a little angry.

"What?" Benson asked.

"We got that food from Pops' stuff, so the only ones allowed to eat it should be us and him!" Rigby shouted.

"Rigby, calm down!" I said. If Rigby didn't stop, he was going to get us kicked out.

"Hey, if it wasn't for me, you guys wouldn't have a place to stay," said Benson, getting angry and a little red in the face, "and you guys don't even do anything!"

"We do so!" Rigby shouted back.

"Only when I tell you to! Most of the time you guys are either goofing off or doing nothing!"

I finally had to speak up, Benson was going too far. "We are doing something," I shouted, "We're surviving. At least we're enjoying life! You just worry about dishes and dirty floors and stuff like that! No one cares if a floor is dirty or if you have to eat with your hands when there's a war going on! At least we're living!"

We all just stood there for a moment, silent. I was a little surprised at myself for yelling. The only one I would ever yell at is Rigby, and that's just when we're joking around.

After a minute passed, Benson left the room and walked over to the sink. He started scrubbing the dishes, and he was scrubbing extra hard as if he was trying to let out some steam.

Rigby and I looked at each other. Were we kicked out? We were too afraid to ask. After another minute had passed, we heard Benson sigh and put down the dish he was scrubbing.

"Look, maybe I've been a little harsh," said Benson, "but things haven't exactly been easy around here. Yeah, there are more important things to be worrying about than clean floors and dishes, but there are also big things to worry about. With five people in the house, we're running short on food in just a couple weeks, and rations are getting smaller."

Benson paused. Rigby and I decided it would be best not to say anything. "I just want this war to be over, so maybe things could get back to normal."

'You and me both,' I thought to myself.

"Hey Benson," said Rigby, "I guess we can share some of our food. But we get the first bowls!"

Benson thought for a moment. "Okay, fair enough." And with that, Benson went back to the dishes, and we went back to our room. Rigby didn't say anything, he just went over to a corner and pouted. I could tell he wanted to be left alone, so I just sat on the bed and read. Thankfully, once dinner time rolled around, Rigby was back to his old self. He even had two bowls of chicken and rice.

Later that night, around Midnight I think, I heard something that made me wake up. It sounded like... "Rigby?" I whispered. I looked over and saw Rigby, tossing and turning in his bed. He was whimpering, it was obvious he was having a bad dream.

"Rigby," I said again, this time a little louder. But Rigby's cries got louder. He started yelling and throwing his arms around. "Rigby! Rigby wake up!" I shout over his cries. I shake him a little, and finally I see his eyes open.

"M-Mordecai?" he asked, his voice quiet and frightened.

"It's okay bro," I said, "I'm right here." I wrap arm around him and rub his arm. That's the closest we've ever gotten to a hug, and while neither of us are the hugging type, I didn't mind and he didn't object.

I hear the door open, and I see Benson standing in the doorway. "What's going on?" he asked, looking and sounding exhausted.

"He had a nightmare," I tell him, "Don't worry, I'm taking care of it."

I see Benson's face soften a bit. "Okay," he said, "Goodnight." He then shuts the door, and the room becomes dark and quiet again.

After five minutes, Rigby stops shaking. "You gonna be okay, bro?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answered. I remove my arm and go back over to my bed. As I get under the blankets, I hear my name again. "Mordecai?"

"Yeah dude?"

"... Thanks."

"No problem." And with that, we both slowly go back to sleep.

()()()()()()()()()

Two weeks later, we are back in the shelters again. We are the only ones in the shelter, Benson and the others were probably at one closer to town.

"Why can't everything go back to normal?" Rigby asked.

"Because this is real life, dude," I replied, "Things just don't work that way."

"I wish we could go back to the house," said Rigby. I knew he wasn't talking about Benson's house, he was talking about the house in the park. Pops' house. "Heck, any place is better than Benson's."

"Come on Dude, it's not that bad," I said.

"Yes it is," said Rigby, "It's boring, there's nothing to do, and you can't do anything fun. Benson just tells us to either do chores or go back to the shelter. And I swear Mordecai, if I hear one more 'My mom' joke from Muscleman, I'm going to snap."

"I know it's rough, dude," I said, "but what other choice do we have? At least we have somewhere to live."

'Even if it is depressing and boring', I think to myself. Usually Rigby overexagerates everything, but I can't help but agree with him this time. I think back to a time earlier that week:

_It was a bright, sunny day. Mordecai and Rigby were in their room, playing with a red keyboard they had found in Benson's tool shed. They were just making up silly little songs to pass the time. Anything that popped into their head became lyrics._

_"Okay, I've got one," said Rigby. He began pressing down on the keys, making somewhat of a melody. "A bunch of baby ducks, send 'em to the moon. Soda machine! That doesn't work, send it to the moon!"_

_Both friends laughed. The song didn't make any sense at all, but they didn't care._

_"What are you guys doing?" Benson, who was outside the window holding a rake, asked. _

_"Just making up songs," Mordecai answered._

_"Look," said Benson, "I don't care if you want to have fun or whatever, but could you at least do it at the shelters? Some of us have work to do." And with that, Benson left to go work on his small garden._

"Maybe we could just live here."

"Huh?" I asked.

"Yeah, this place would be perfect!" said Rigby, his tail swishing in excitement, "No one else uses this shelter, we wouldn't have to worry about getting bombed, and we could do whatever we want!"

Would we be able to live here? The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. We would have our food, blankets, and the mosquito net Benson gave us. It would be safe, close to the town and farms, and would probably enjoy ourselves more here than at Benson's.

"Okay dude," I said with a smile, "Lets do it."

**So yeah, that's chapter two. If you've seen the movie, you probably noticed that I didn't put every scene in here, and the scenes I did put in I changed a little (I didn't want to be a total copycat). I also didn't make Benson as mean as the aunt in the movie (I couldn't do that to Benson, he's one of my favorite characters). Please review, no flames and I'll see you in the next chapter :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you everyone who has faved/reviewed/alerted. It really means a lot to me :) Now, on with the chapter. Quick warning, the POV switches in the middle of this chapter, but I'll let you guys know who's pov it is before it starts (Right now it's Mordecai's like usual). Enjoy!**

Since we'd been living with Benson, Rigby and I still had money. I had one hundred dollars saved up, and Rigby had twenty. It isn't much, but it was enough to get us what we needed for the shelter. We already had food, blankets and a mosquito net, we just needed a few more things...

"There, one portable woodburning stove," the owner of the Pawn shop said as he placed the stove in front of me. It was barely a stove, more like a giant pot with table legs, but at least it had a place underneith it to build a fire. "You're lucky, it's our last one."

"Thanks," I said, "I'll also take some matches, and..."

"Oh come on!" I heard Rigby yell, "Punch! Come on, punch!" I turned and saw him playing one of those old handheld games. I could barely remember the last time I played a video game.

"I'll take that game too," I said to the owner, "and do you have an umbrella?" It was raining outside, and besides an umbrella could give us shade if we needed it.

"Hmm, ah yes! Hold on," he said. He went behind the counter and pulled out a blue umbrella with a couple rips in it, but otherwise it was perfect.

I gave him the money, took our bag, and we were off. "Hey Mordecai," said Rigby as we were walking, "Wanna race back to Benson's?"

"Dude, you'll get wet," I said.

"So, it's just rain, and we've got towels at the house," said Rigby.

I smiled. "Okay, you're on!" We both began running as fast as we could, and we ended up making it to Benson's in record time. We ended up getting soaked, but we didn't care. After we dried off, we loaded an abandoned shopping cart we found by the river. We were about to leave when Benson came outside.

"Oh, hey Benson," I said.

"Are you guys leaving?" he asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah," said Mordecai, "We... figured it would be best for all of us."

"Oh," said Benson. We all stood there for a couple awkward moments.

"Well, I guess we should get going," I said.

"Wait, hold on a sec," Benson told us. He went inside and came back with a couple cans of food. "I know it isn't much, but I figured it would help."

"Thanks Benson," I said, taking the cans. Without being apart of the rations program, we would need all the food we could get.

I grabbed the cart, and started to walk away, with Rigby running right beside me. I didn't bother looking back. It may've been shelter, but it wasn't home. We weren't going to miss it.

That was the last time I saw Benson, and that house.

()()()()()()()

Moving into the shelter was actually kind of fun. It was even a little easy. After putting the blankets and our stuff inside the shelter, we gathered firewood. We also used an old bucket from our old town for water. After that we were hungry, so we started a fire and boiled some chicken, and then cooked some corn.

"Mmm," Rigby said as he ate, "Who would've thought stove cooked food tasted better than oven-cooked food?"

"I know, right?" I replied.

"So, how much food do we have?" asked Rigby.

"If we're lucky," I said, thinking about it, "Enough to last us two weeks."

"What do we do after that?"

"Well, I guess we could always eat frogs."

"Dude, you're sick! We can't eat frogs!"

"Hey come on, I've heard they taste like chicken. Besides, if you don't want to eat frogs, there's probably some berries or vegetables or something around here."

Rigby looked at me. "Maybe eating frogs wouldn't be so bad." We had a good laugh at that. After I washed the dishes and Rigby hung up the mosquito net inside the shelter, we played two hours of 'Strong Johns' and five rounds of 'Rock, Paper, Scissors'. During my last turn on 'Strong Johns', Rigby fell asleep.

"Dude," I said, shaking him a little.

"Get off," he mumbled as he hit (or at least tried to hit) my arm, "I'm sleeping..."

Knowing the mosquitos would practically eat him alive if he wasn't under the net, I carried him inside, and we both slept like logs. For being a small, hot shelter, it was pretty comfortable.

Two days later, I went into town to by some more food. Normally I would've waited until we were running low, but I didn't know how long we would be able to buy food before it was all just sent out as rations. Rigby must've noticed this, because he started teasing me.

"You just want to go and see _Margaret!" _he said with a sly grin.

"Shut up!" I said, "I do not!" 'But maybe it would be nice to visit' I thought. Just thinking about her made me blush (Luckily my feathers hid it). Ignoring Rigby's teasing, I left the shelter, and walked to the city.

I was able to buy three cans of vegetables and a bag of potato chips. Food was getting harder and harder to buy, not only because there was barely any left for sale, but the price was so expensive.

"Supply and Demand, Man," the store owner had said to me. Knowing arguing would just get me kicked out, I paid for the food and headed for the Coffee shop.

As soon as I got there, I saw a car outside, which was a little unusual since the last few times I've been there the place was completely empty except for Margaret.

I went inside, and I saw Margaret, wearing a blue dress instead of her uniform, and standing with a girl mongoose. "Margaret?"

"Oh, hey Mordecai," Margaret said. She smiled at me, but I could tell she was upset about something, "Hey, you want some free donuts?"

"Sure!" I said, "but why are they free?"

"The coffee shops going out of business."

"What? Why?"

Margaret looked down at the counter. "Um, Eilleen," she said to the mongoose, "Could you please wait outside for a minute?" Eilleen nodded, and left the shop. Margaret looked back up at me. "It's this war. No one's coming in to buy coffee anymore. The store's not making any money. We're not even spending any money, we can't reach our suppliers. The only reason why the donuts are free is because they're just going to go stale anyway."

"So what, you're getting a new job?" I asked.

"You could say that," she said, "I'm... going to be going overseas, to be in the army. I'm going to be a nurse over there."

I couldn't believe it. The girl of my dreams was going into a warzone.

"Oh," I said. That's all I really could say.

"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner," said Margaret, "But, maybe when I get back we can, I don't know, maybe hangout?"

"Y-yeah, sure," I said, blushing again.

Margaret handed me the box of donuts, and we both went outside. "Well, goodbye Mordecai," she said before giving me a hug. My mouth was to dry to say anything, so I just smiled at her. She got in the car, and her and her friend drove away. I waved to them until they were out of sight.

When I got back to the shelter an hour later, Rigby right way started teasing me again.

"Hey dude," he said, "How was Margaret?"

"Just knock it off, Dude," I said, throwing the box of donuts onto the blanket. I sat down and leaned against the wall.

"Whoa, what's got you all worked up?" Rigby asked.

"Nothing!" I shouted, "Just leave me alone!"

"Dude, just stop being mad and tell me!" said Rigby, not letting it go.

"You want to know what's wrong?" I asked, "Today sucks! That's what's wrong!" I was angry. Because of this stupid war, I kept losing people I cared about. Don, Pops and now Margaret! I was so sick of it all! I just wanted this war to be over!"

"The coffee shop closed today," I said, "and Margaret's leaving. She's going overseas to be with the army and be a nurse. I don't even know if I'll ever see her again!"

Rigby was quiet for a few seconds. "So you did like her."

"Yes Rigby, I liked her!" I shouted, "Go ahead and tease me all you want because I don't care anymore!" And with that, I turned away from Rigby.

After a few seconds, I heard him walk over to our pile of stuff and pull something out. I then heard the 'Strong Johns' pixelated theme song.

"Mordecai?"

"What Rigby?" I snapped.

"You wanna play 'Strong Johns'?" I looked at him. "You can play first." That surprised me, Rigby always wanted to play first.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you're having a sucky day and I thought playing first would make you feel better," said Rigby, "So go on, play some Strong Johns!"

I smiled a little. "Okay," I said. Rigby handed me the game, and then leaned on my shoulder so he could watch.

Three hours later, Rigby and I had dinner. "You can do the dishes," I said, "and I'll go get more firewood."

"What! I did the dishes last night!" Rigby complained.

"Yeah, but I did the dishes two nights in a row," I argued.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors for who has to wash the dishes?" Rigby asked.

"Fine." We both counted to three. I had paper, and Rigby had scissors. "Aw man!"

"Hmph hmph," said Rigby with a smile before going to go get firewood. He came back ten minutes later with a big bundle of firewood and then went inside the shelter, just as it was getting dark.

I was still washing the dishes, which was hard to do without a sponge. I probably would've just quit and not worried about dishes, but they were the only ones we had, so I didn't have a choice.

"Um, dude?"

"What Rigby?" I asked.

"Maybe you can just do the dishes tomorrow and come inside?" he asked. He almost sounded, scared?

"Dude, are you afraid of the dark?" I asked, "You've gotta be kidding me, you've been in the dark before."

"Not in a shelter by myself I haven't!" Rigby retorted, "What if there are bats or scorpions or whatever in there?"

"Dude, there's nothing in there," I said, rolling my eyes.

"How do you know?" he asked, "It's pitch black in there." As soon as Rigby said that, I noticed about half a dozen fireflies flying behind him.

"Not for long," I said, "Get the bucket and stove lid."

It took us about half an hour to collect all the fireflies we would need, but it was worth it.

"Okay ready? One...two...three!" We both lifted the lid, and almost a hundred fireflies flew out. You couldn't even tell they were bugs. They were just little balls of light that lit up the whole room.

"Whoa!" said Rigby, amazed at the sight. A couple fireflies landed on his nose, making me laugh.

Pretty soon, the fireflies were all over the shelter. We laid down on the blankets and watched them fly around. In such a small and dark place, they glowed brighter than ever. It was pretty cool.

"I guess you being afraid of the dark was a good thing," I commented.

"Stop talking!" Rigby shouted.

I looked back up at the ceiling. All the fireflies reminded me of stars. "Hey Dude, remember that one Fourth of July back when we were twelve?"

"Yeah, that was awesome," Rigby replied.

"Yeah," I said, smiling.

_Mordecai was laying in the grass, looking up at the stars. He had never seen so many._

_"Hey Mordecai!" Mordecai sat up, and saw Rigby and his little brother (though he easily towered over Rigby) climbing over the fence around Mordecai's yard._

_"Hey Dude!" Mordecai greeted, "You guys didn't go to the fireworks either?"_

_"No, Mom said it would be too crowded. I guess we can see them from our yard," said Don._

_"Or," said Rigby, "We can have our own fireworks!" He ran over to the fence door, ran out and came back with a box of firecrackers._

_"Dude, where did you get those!" Mordecai asked, excited._

_"I have my sources," replied Rigby, "Now come on, let's light these babies!" The raccoon dug around in the box and pulled out the biggest firecracker he could find._

_"Maybe we should start with a smaller one, Bro," suggested Don._

_"Don, I know what I'm doing," said Rigby. He got out a pack of matches, and lit the giant firecracker. But before he could throw it into the air, the match got too hot and burned Rigby's finger. He yelped, and dropped the match into the small pile of firecrackers he had dug out. "Uh Oh."_

_"Dude, get back!" Mordecai shouted. The three boys tipped over a backyard picnic table, and hid behind it._

_In a flash of light and a chorus of thunder, the firecrackers flew up and exploded into a rainbow of colors. "Whoa!" all three of them said, "Awesome!"_

_The three boys spent the rest of the night launching firecrackers into the sky. It was a great night._

_"Okay," said Mordecai as he lit the next round, "Three, two, one!" The firecrackers flew up into the sky, putting on another awesome display._

_"OOOOHHHH!" Mordecai and Rigby hollered happily as they watched._

"OOOOOHHHH!" I shouted without even realizing it. I looked over at Rigby, he was fast asleep. I laid back down and watched the fireflies float around the cave until I drifted into another dreamless sleep.

()()()()()()(()()**Rigby's Pov**

When I woke up in the morning, I couldn't believe how dark it was, even with the sunlight at the front of the shelter. Where were the fireflies? They couldn't have flown away, they couldn't get past the mosquito net.

When I got up, I felt my hand brush up against something. I picked it up. It was a dead firefly. All the fireflies were dead.

I don't know why, but I felt sad about it. Maybe because it reminded me of all the other people who've died. I gathered all the fireflies I could find and went outside. Half an hour later, I had dug a small hole, and was putting fireflies in it.

"Rigby, what are you doing?" Mordecai had woken up.

"Nothing, it's stupid," I said.

"Dude, just tell me," Mordecai said, "I promise I won't laugh."

"Okay," I said after thinking about it, "I'm...making a grave for the fireflies we caught last night. They all died."

"Fireflies don't live very long," said Mordecai.

'They died young,' I thought to myself. "Just like Don and Pops." I then realized what I said.

"What?" Mordecai asked, sounding surprised. I didn't repeat it, I didn't want to say it again.

"Don't worry Bro, I'm not mad at you for not telling me... Benson told me why you didn't."

I remembered when Benson told me. It was maybe a week before we moved into the shelter. I was asking if he had heard anything about Pops, Mordecai wasn't around to ask. After he told me, I was upset but I never showed it. I didn't even cry when I was by myself.

But now...

I felt tears in my eyes. I hated myself for crying, but I couldn't help it! Don and Pops were both gone. Only me and Mordecai were left.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Mordecai, he was crying too. At least now he couldn't tease me about it.

"It'll be alright, Rigby," he said. He sat down next to me, now it didn't seem like he was so much taller than me.

"I miss them," I said. I missed Pops and all the weird things about him, I miss our house, I even miss Don's 'sugar'.

"I know, I miss them too," said Mordecai, "But maybe, when all of this is over, we can make our own graves for them, at the house. Kinda like a memorial thing."

A memorial. "Yeah, okay," I said. I wiped my eyes, and then finished burying the fireflies.

()()()()()()()

The days went by like crazy. Our food was quickly disappearing too. We had to start only eating two meals a day. I didn't like it, but I guess it was better than nothing.

One day, I woke up to get myself a bowl of cereal, I poured one for Mordecai too. But after two hours, he still wasn't up.

"Mordecai," I shouted into the cave, "I've got cereal, get up already!" He didn't answer back, he just coughed. "Mordecai? Are you okay?"

"Yeah dude," Mordecai said, "I'm fine, I've just got a 24 hour flu or something. I'll be fine."

"Well, here's your cereal," I said, putting it next to him. He thanked me, but he only ate about half of it, and slept the rest of the day. Two days later, he was sick.

I didn't show it, but I was scared that Mordecai wouldn't get better. He was my only friend, and I wanted him to get better. But what could I do? I didn't have any healthy food or medicine. But then I remembered: The farms.

Me and Mordecai had started going to farms to buy or trade things for food. They weren't able to give us a lot, but what they did give us tasted great. The farmers also grew sugar there. I think I remember hearing something on some talk show that sugar helps you get better when your sick. So that night, I snuck out of the shelter, and ran to the farms...

'This should be plenty,' I told myself as I finished picking the last of the sugar plants. I also picked a couple tomatoes and potatoes. I didn't like stealing, but I didn't feel that bad since this farmer didn't give us any food when we offered to buy some.

"Hey! Who's out there?" I heard a voice shout.

"Crap!" I whispered. I grabbed all the sugar and vegetables and ran.

"You little rat!" Since I was running on two legs instead of four, I was easier to catch. "Gotcha! You no good thief!"

"Let me go!" I shouted, "Get off!" The farmer threw me to the ground. "I was just trying to get some food for my sick friend!"

"Yeah right, I've heard that one before!" the farmer shouted. He shined his flashlight on the ground. "Look at all this! You little...!"

I grabbed some food and tried to escape, but the farmer kept catching me. By the time we were done, I was bleeding in a couple of spots and I'm pretty sure I had a blackeye.

"Let's go!" he shouted, picking me up by my fur and pushing me forward, "I hope they lock you up and throw away the key!"

We walked all the way to the city police station, and the farmer told the officer this story about how I was a 'no good thief' stealing for my 'imaginary sick friend'. If I didn't hurt so much I would've told him to shut it and then try escaping again.

"That's enough," said the officer, "I've heard all I've need to. You can go home, Sir."

"Wait, aren't you going to punish him at all!" the farmer shouted.

"I think he's been punished enough," the officer said, looking at me. I must've looked pretty bad. Good thing we don't have a mirror. "Looks like you did quite a number on him. In fact, you're lucky I'm not arresting _you _for assult."

"No! Um, I'll just go back home now," said the farmer, "thank you officer." As soon as the farmer left, the police officer said I was free to go.

"Good luck to you and your friend," he told me before I left.

When I walked outside, I realized how tired and hurt I was. It would take me another hour to get home. "Better start walking," I told myself.

"Rigby!"

"Great," I said, "Now I'm hearing voices." Wait, that wasn't in my head. I looked up and saw a tall figure up ahead. "Mordecai?"

"Rigby!" Mordecai ran up to me.

"What are you doing here? I thought you were asleep."

"I was, I woke up to use the bathroom. I've been looking for you for like an hour!" He then saw all my scratches and bruises. "What happened?"

"I was trying to get us some food," I said, looking down at the ground.

"You were stealing?" Mordecai said, "Dude, you could've gotten arrested, or worse!"

"I know!" I shouted back.

"Well then, why did you try to steal?"

"I was trying to help you!" I said. Mordecai blinked. "I thought maybe if I could get some sugar and some healthy food you would make you stop being sick."

"You were stealing, so you could try and help me get better?" Mordecai said, surprised.

"Don't act so surprised," I said, "I may be a jerk sometimes but I'm not completely selfish." I think I made Mordecai feel guilty with that one.

"You're not a jerk, Rigby," Mordecai said, "Truth is, you're a really good friend." I hid a smile. "Come on, we need to get back to the shelter."

"Okay," I said. I followed Mordecai all the way to the shelter, and then collapsed on the blankets.

The next day, I guess Mordecai got rid of his flu because he was feeling better. Things seemed to be going our way. But then, a couple days later, I started feeling funny.

"Dude," Mordecai asked me, "Are you okay."

"I... I just need to lie down for a few minutes," I said. I went inside the shelter, and laid down on the blankets, wrapped my tail around my waist and slowly fell asleep.

**So that's chapter three. I can't believe how fast I'm updating this. Please leave reviews everyone, I like to hear people's opinions on my stories and I'm up for any advice you may have on how to make this story better. Last chapter coming up, so stay tuned.**

**Also, if you have the time, look up "Grave of the Fireflies" on Youtube (They have the English and Subtitled versions, I recommend subtitled). It's a movie you'll cry your eyes out at, but it's something you'll never forget. Truly a masterpiece. See you in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's the last chapter. Once again it's in Mordecai's pov. **

It was September, six months after our town was bombed and everything changed. Rigby and I were happy at the shelter, but things were getting hard. We were down to eating one small meal a day and then whatever nuts or berries we found while hunting for firewood. We had twelve dollars and seventy three cents left, but food was no longer available.

"Please," I remembered saying to a farmer, one of our new friends, just a few days ago, "I've done everything I can to get food, I even sold my friend's clothes. Please dude, just name your price or tell me what you want to trade for it and I'll get it."

"Look I'm sorry," the farmer had said, "but I can't sell or trade you anything. I gave you both all I could the last time you were here. If you want my advice, go back to your friend's house and ask if you could move back in."

"Well, thanks anyway," I said before Rigby and I walked to our shelter. Even if I wanted to go back to Benson's, it would've been pointless. He probably doesn't have any food to spare either. Besides, Rigby and I were 17 and 19, practically adults. We would find a way to survive. We had to.

I itched my left wing, and two more feathers came off. I was losing about three or four feathers a day, and I had red splotches all over me. But I think Rigby had it worse than me.

His black eye healed pretty quickly, but his scars were red and looked really bad. He was losing fur, and had red splotches on his body too. He was practically skin and bones now. I could tell he was getting weaker everyday, but he always managed to keep somewhat of a positive attitude by joking around or challenging me to Strong Johns (I was surprised the batteries hadn't died yet, but they probably would soon).

"I'm going to start cooking some corn for lunch," I said. As I moved to get the can, I noticed Rigby hunched over, looking like something was wrong. "Dude, are you okay?"

"I... I just need to lie down for a few minutes," he said before walking into the shelter. I found him half an hour later asleep on the blankets, I almost hated waking him up.

That night, I heard the sirens again. It didn't scare me as much as it did before, but it did bring back memories.

"Must be bombing the city," I said to myself. But as I sat there, listening to the sirens, I thought of something. Every house in that city probably had food, and maybe even things that people would be willing to trade for even if it did mean giving up food. I looked over at Rigby. Still fast asleep.

I looked back outside. It was a stupid idea, it would be dangerous and wrong. But I didn't have much of a choice. "Don't worry Rigby," I said, "We're not going to starve out here." And with that, I left the shelter, grabbed my bag and ran towards the city.

The planes were right above me, dropping bombs like crazy. The streets were even more crowded with people than the last time I was running from bombs. What made it even harder was that I was running against the crowd. After what seemed like forever, I was finally at the residential area of the city.

The first house I broke into, I ran straight to the kitchen. As if someone had been eating just before the bombs started dropping, there was a box of Rice Krispies on the counter. I grabbed a box, and ate three or four handfulls of cereal. I was so hungry.

After that, I grabbed half a loaf of bread and a can of corn. That was enough, I didn't want to leave these people with nothing. But before I left, I went into the main bedroom and grabbed a nice looking watch and one of those fancy caps they wear in England. 'There's no way people would say no to these,' I told myself.

BOOM! I turned around. It sounded like the explosion was right next to me, when really it was just right next to the house. More bombs were dropping. I ran out the door, and out of the city. I was so full of adrenaline, I ran all the way back to the shelter without stopping.

When I got there, and stopped to catch my breath, something weird happened. I started laughing. Maybe it was because I knew that we would make it for another week, or maybe it was because this was had finally driven me off the deep end, but either way, I was laughing.

I ran back to the shelter, and dropped off the food and stuff. "First thing in the morning, Rigby," I said to him, even though I knew he was asleep and couldn't hear me, "I'm going to get us some real food."

)()()()()()()()

"Do you honestly think I'm an idiot? If this stuff was genuine why didn't you try to trade it in sooner? Take this junk somewhere else!"

The door then slammed in my face, nearly smashing my beak in. I resisted the erge to kick the door. That was the third store I had tried to trade with, and the third rejection.

I tried with three more stores, and none of them wanted to trade. The last store I went to, the owner must've felt sorry for me because she gave me two apples for free. Disappointed, I ended up walking slowly to the shelter. I felt useless, I was sure my plan would work, but I guess I was wrong.

As I walked down the hill that led to the shelter, my foot stepped on something. I heard it crack, as if it were glass or something. "What the...?" I said, lifting my foot. Underneith it was the Strong Johns game.

I picked it up, and looked at it. It was the same game we had been playing with for a month and a half. Same faded colors and letters, same feel, the only difference was now there was a big crack in the middle of the screen. But how did it get here? The only way would've had to been if someone had carried it...

"Oh no," I said. I began looking around. "Rigby! Rigby!" As I looked around, a small hill of brown fur caught my eye. I ran over, and practically froze in place when I saw him.

It was Rigby like I had thought, but I almost wished it wasn't. He looked so still, so weak. Even his tail was still, not moving an inch. I wasn't even sure he was alive, I was to scared to think about checking.

After a few minutes, my brain started working again. I watched his body. He was breathing, but it was small, shallow breaths. "Rigby," I said, grabbing his shoulder and shaking him, "Rigby! Rigby, please wake up!"

Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked up at me. His eyes that were usually wide and always looking back and forth, as if looking for the trouble he would sometimes get into, were now glassy and distant.

"Mordecai..." he whispered. I smiled, and picked him up. Once I got him in the shelter, I put a wet washcloth on his forehead, and gave him some water and bread.

"What were you doing outside the shelter?" I asked, once he was a little more awake.

"Looking for you," he replied. I immediantly felt guilty for leaving without telling him, "Where, were you?"

"I was out trying to get some more food," I answered, "but all I managed to get was a couple apples."

"Maybe we can, make applesauce," said Rigby, "I've heard, it tastes better."

"Maybe," I said, "But first we need to get you to a doctor." Maybe if he put some medicine on Rigby's scars or whatever, maybe he would start to get better.

()()()()()()()()

"Okay, breathe in. And breathe out." Rigby did what the doctor told him, and then walked over to sit next to me.

"Well, what's wrong with him?" I asked the doctor.

"Well, he has a fever," he replied, "and those scars have caused a bit of infection. He's also severely malnurished and dehydrated." He then pressed a button on his intercom system. "Next patient please."

"Wait what?" I said, "What do you mean 'next patient'? Can't you do anything for him? Give him pills or a shot or something?"

"Look," said the doctor, "I really am sorry I can't do more, but I don't have any medicine to help your friend. If you give him enough food, his body will fight the infection and get better itself. It's as simple as that, just find him some food."

"Food?" I repeated. Some guy with bandages walked in, and the doctor asked him what was wrong. He said something about his arm or whatever, but I didn't let him finish. "Where the H am I supposed to find food!" I shouted at the doctor.

Angry and frusterated, I picked Rigby back up and ran out of the doctor's office. We walked back to the shelter and as we did, we passed a farmer who was cutting a giant cube of ice in half. He took one half inside his house, and left the other on the truck.

Seeing the small pile of ice underneith the cube, I knelt down, picked some up, and gave it to Rigby. As I gave him a little more ice, I could smell food coming from the farmhouse. It nearly made my mouth water.

"Man I'm hungry," I said, "I could sure go for a cheeseburger." I looked down at Rigby, who's eyes were about half open. "What about you, dude? What do you want to eat?"

"Pizza... hot dogs... Pops' homemade roast beef stew," Rigby said, listing off delicious food, "and I want, I want chocolate cake."

"Chocolate cake?" I repeated, "Yeah, that sounds good. Well guess what, tomorrow I'm going to try looking for a job again. I know it's a long shot, but if I can find one, I'll buy us all kinds of awesome food."

"Wait, no!" Rigby said, quietly but determined, "Don't!"

"Rigby!" I said, a little surprised at him, "I don't have a choice."

"Don't!" he said again, "I don't want to be alone!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"When you were gone today," he said, "I thought you were really gone, I thought you had died. I don't want to be the only one left, Mordecai! You can have all the food, just don't leave me! I don't want to be alone!"

I couldn't believe what I just heard. I had never seen Rigby this way, so scared and broken. But that just made me want to protect him even more, to make sure he survived this.

"Rigby," I said, "Look at me." He turned his head up, his eyes filled with tears. "You and I are bros for life, right?"

"Yeah," he said.

"Then that means that I'm never going to leave you. I'm not going to leave you all alone. I promise."

"You promise?" Rigby repeated.

"Yeah," I said before adding "bro" at the end. Smiling at me a little, he opened his arms and wrapped them around me. Six months earlier, I would've thought Rigby hugging me would be weird and something he would never do. But now, I didn't even think about it. I just hugged back. "I promise," I said again.

()()()()()()())

Two days later, I managed to convince Rigby to let me leave the shelter for two hours. Even if there was no point in looking for a job or food, I had to at least see if there was any news about the war.

As soon as I made it to the city, the streets were crowded with people dancing and cheering. What was going on? I walked up to one guy by the corner. "Um, excuse me but, what's going on?"

"We won the war!" he answered, before cheering along with the rest of the crowd. I couldn't believe it. Did Rigby and I really make it through this war?

"When?" I asked.

"Just yesterday," another man said, "They surrendered, and the armies should start coming home in two weeks!"

"Wait," I said, "does that mean stores are opening again? And we can buy food?"

"Probably," he said, before joining the crowd again. Smiling, I ran through the crowd and towards the nearest grocery store. But when I got there, it was closed. I went to the next one. Closed. And the next one. Freaking closed!

When I went to the Pawn shop, the one I had gotten my stove at. "Excuse me," I said while trying to catch my breath, "but do you know if anyone's selling food?"

"No one's sold food for the past two weeks, kid," the owner said.

"But we won the war!" I shouted.

"We still have armies to feed overseas," said the owner, "and a lot of fields were destroyed. We may've won the war and the bombings may be over, but things aren't going to just go back to normal just like that. It'll probably be another month before stores get back in business."

A month? We still had to wait a month. We couldn't wait a month, we could barely wait a week if we had to. I thought we were so close to making it, but it turned out we were just as far away as ever. "Please," I said, practically begging, "You have to have something. I've got money, I'll pay whatever you want!"

The owner thought it over. "Alright fine," he said, getting up from his chair, "Follow me." We walked to the back room, which had a small fridge and two small cabnets. He got a small bag, and filled it with food, including a package of hotdogs from the fridge.

"Here," he said, handing me the bag, "Good luck kid."

"Thank you so much!" I said, taking the bag. I ran out the store, and ran towards the shelter. With this food, we could make another week, maybe two. We had to make it, we just had to.

"Rigby," I said as I entered the shelter, "You'll never believe it!"

"Aww," I heard him moan quietly, "I lost again." Confused, I looked over at him. He was laying on the blankets and had the Strong Johns game in his hands. But the batteries for that game had been dead for a week. 'Maybe he's just pretending to play,' I thought to myself.

"Rigby," I said, "the war's over! We won! We beat them! And I was able to get us some food, really great food." I opened my bag and began taking things out. When I found the hotdogs, I ripped open the package, started a fire, and boiled them on the stove.

"You're going to love this, dude," I said ten minutes later when I was carrying the plate of hotdogs over to Rigby.

"Mordecai," Rigby said, "I have food for you too."

"Huh?" I said. I didn't see any food. Rigby picked up a small clump of dirt that sort of looked like a triangle, and placed it in front of me.

"It's cake, dude," he said, giving me a small smile, "Have some."

"Rigby..." I said. What was wrong with him? But then it hit me. He wasn't pretending. He was hallucinating. He was getting weaker. He was offering food to me that wasn't even there. I felt my eyes start to water.

"You don't want any?" He asked, a little sad, "Okay."

'Stop it', I told myself. I put on a smile, and walked towards Rigby. "Look bro, hotdogs!" I said, "and they smell great! I'm sure they taste great too." I ripped off a small piece of the first hotdog, and put it in Rigby's mouth. "Here, eat it."

He chewed it, and swallowed. He slowly smiled at the taste. "That tastes good," he said.

"Here," I said, putting the plate next to him, "There's plenty more where that came from. I'm going to make some vegetables to go with them. Okay?" Rigby didn't say anything. I stood up and started walking towards the doorway.

"Mordecai?" I looked back at Rigby.

"Yeah, Rigby."

"Bros for life?"

"Yeah," I said, "Bros for life."

He smiled. "Thank you, Mordecai." I smiled back at him, and then walked out of the shelter. I'm not sure how I knew, but some how I felt like that was the last time I would talk to Rigby. And I was right.

()()()()()()()()

"Here you go. This should be all you need." One of the local farmers was giving me a box and some charcoal to cremate Rigby with.

"Thank you," I said, not recognizing my own voice.

"I really am sorry about your friend," said the farmer, "he was a really nice kid." I didn't say anything, I just walked back towards the shelter.

I couldn't believe he was gone. The person I had known since I was five, my best friend, my brother, was gone. I couldn't stop thinking about him.

_"Hey Mordecai! You want to see something cool?"_

_"I bet I can beat you back to Benson's!"_

_"Dude, that's awesome!"_

_"I'll see you tomorrow, Mordecai!"_

_"Nothing like hanging out with my bro, right Mordecai?"_

_"Well, maybe eating frogs wouldn't be so bad." _

_"Do you want to play Strong Johns? You can play first."_

_"Thank you, Mordecai."_

As I walked to the shelter for the last time, I kept seeing Rigby. Despite all we've been through, he always found a way to entertain himself, to have fun.

_Rigby had just finished bringing in firewood. "I'll see you later, Dude," Mordecai said, "I'll be back from town in a few hours."_

_"See you later, Mordecai!" As soon as Mordecai left, he would get into his usual schedule. Throughout his weeks at the shelter, he would end up doing many things: He would gather firewood, keep bugs away from the food supply, fish for their supper (though he never had the patience for this), and brush the dirt off their blankets. He would do fun things too, like playing Strong Johns, Climbing trees, playing tic tac toe with himself and even swimming if it was hot enough. Even if he was tired, he would always be happy when Mordecai came back, ready with a joke or with teasing if Mordecai had seen Margaret that day._

I carried Rigby's body up the hill where I had the box and charcoal was. After I placed his body in the box, I put in the Strong Johns game, but then I took it out. Strong Johns was something for Rigby and Me, something we did together that took our minds off the war or our food supply or whatever. I wanted to keep it with me.

I picked up the lid, and was getting ready to cover up the box. I took one last look at my friend. His fur and skin was still the same as it had been the past month, but I noticed a small smile on Rigby's face.

_"Thank you, Mordecai." _

"Goodbye Rigby," I said quietly as I covered the box. I would never forget him. Taking a match, I struck it against the matchbox, and then lit a small stick on the pile. After a few minutes, a giant fire was burning. I sat there and watched it burn until nighttime, when it was finally extinguished. I took a small handfull of Rigby's ashes, and put them in the place where the batteries usually go in the game.

I placed the game in my bag, and I walked towards the town. I knew I would never go back to that shelter again. I walked until I reached a bench that was on a hill, right next to the city...

()()()()()()()

_"Mordecai!"_

_Mordecai's spirit looked up. Rigby ran towards him on all fours. "There you are, dude. I guess you found a place to rest for the night."_

_"Yeah," Mordecai said, "Pull up a seat." Rigby jumped onto the bench, and sat down._

_"Do you think we'll see Don and Pops soon?" Rigby asked, his tail twitching._

_"Yeah, they're probably waiting for us right now," Mordecai said, smiling. He couldn't wait to see his friends again. _

_Rigby smiled back, right before he yawned and rested his head against Mordecai's wing. "Goodnight Mordecai."_

_"Goodnight Rigby," replied Mordecai. As his best friend fell asleep, the bluejay looked out over the city. It was sprinkled in bright lights from the homes of people who had survived the war. But Mordecai wasn't bitter about this. _

_They might not have survived, but they had lived. They had had a happy life, and had became closer friends than ever before. If he had the opportunity to do those six long months over again, he wouldn't had changed a thing. _

_Smiling one last time, Mordecai closed his eyes, and finally drifted into a peaceful sleep. _

**Well, that was the end. I tried my best to make this chapter have the same emotional impact I remember from the movie, but not make it too sappy. Thank you all for reading this, and I hope to hear from you all in your reviews. Thank you again :)**


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